LOCAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Building the Local Community Capacities for Identification of Problems

Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) has been working on the projects concerning local community for a long time. The problems that CeSID has identified in this field are related to the impossibility of perceiving the main problems of local communities, as well as to difficulties with forming a list of priorities according to which they should be solved. Without defining these needs a responsible public policy cannot be exercised at the local level. An additional difficulty is seen in the fact that there is no methodology or human resources that could work on overcoming this problem.

Through activities on projects within the development of local self-government, CeSID initiated the forming of more than 40 Citizens' Forums, comprised of representatives of non-governmental organizations, representatives of different professions, as well as of prominent individuals of those municipalities. The initiation and foundation of these organizations is a necessary step towards building trust between the local authorities and the local community. However, this represents only an initiative that should be supported in order to strengthen relations and make them more functional on a long term basis. The initial problems representatives of the local authorities and administration at one level and representatives of citizens at the other are facing are related to the issue of the identification of problems and priorities on which they should work together.

The municipal authorities and their administration do not have appropriate services or methodology according to which they identify problems of local communities. The legacy of behaviour of administration which originates from the earlier period is found in the fact that there is no clear concept of cooperation with representatives of citizens, despite the wish to change things fundamentally. Therefore it is necessary to help administration with the process of identification of problems of local community, in other words, build capacities that could satisfy that need.

Representatives of citizens, that is, members of Citizens' Forums, and other non-governmental organizations, also do not have appropriate capacities for identification of needs of local environment. In that situation insisting on particular interests and the absence of an agreed list of priorities takes place. Under the circumstances of reduced financial powers of municipalities, this issue becomes a stumbling block between the very representatives of Citizens' Forums, but also in communication with municipal authorities. Through its activities, CeSID wants to help build capacities within both subjects and in that way within the whole community. By developing capacities through processes of concrete researches and identifying problems, conditions are created for the already established cooperation between municipalities and citizens to continue in the best direction. This project aims at the initiation of building of structures for problem identification, analyzing concrete problems, opening up possibilities and making recommendations for their solving.

The objective of the project “ Building the Local Community Capacities for Identification of Problems” is to organize and educate representatives of local authorities and local community and define the most important problems of the local community. At the same time premises for better mutual communication between the local authorities and the local community are established.

In order to achieve these objectives of the project, the activities within it are defined through three tasks:

1. Formation and training of research teams

This activity includes the training of CeSID's associates for the activities envisaged within this project. The second phase of this activity is related to the formation and education of four-member municipal teams for the processes of problem identification of local communities.

2. Conducting researches on problems of local communities

In each of the municipalities covered by this project six processes of public-opinion research will be conducted, as well as an institutional analysis in different fields of functioning of local community. Each of these cycles will include problems with the smallest possible common denominator for all municipalities.

1. Communal issues, more precisely issues related to problems with water supply, sewerage system, collecting garbage, cleanliness, and arranging green spaces belong to the first corpus

2. The second research will be focused on the issues related to transportation, building and maintaining roads, heating and maintaining housing places

3. Third aspect will deal with the problems of social and political character, like problems concerning the local authorities and administration

4. Fourth aspect will be dedicated to issues concerning culture and the media (non-existence of appropriate cultural progammes, the quality of the media reporting in the local environment, citizens' expectations, social and cultural life and entertainment in the local community…)

5. Fifth round of the research will deal with the problems of healthcare system, educational system, social and youth policies

6. Issues concerning development of economy, especially exploring possibilities for the foundation and functioning of small and medium enterprises as a framework of development of economy in the local community belong to the sixth research

Necessary data are obtained through these activities in order to identify and form a list of priorities of each local community. At the same time this will also be a process of education of the teams through empirical approach.

3. Presentation of analyses and making recommendations

After having collected data, they will be analysed and problems of local communities will be identified on the basis of that. In each municipality CeSID's experts will present obtained data to the authorities, public enterprises and other public services that are in charge of the investigated problems and make recommendations for possible direction of activities in order to solve them. They will serve as an initial capsule for the process of cooperation between the local authorities and local community. Taking into account that in municipalities there are no trained personnel who should define problems of the local community and on the basis of that provide guidelines for the policy making at the local level, this project will have as its result the forming of the nucleus of the municipal team which will serve that purpose. Representatives of municipalities will be trained, through activities within this project, for continuing independent work on problem identification.

Also, in this way representatives of the civil sector will be qualified to identify problems in their local communities, and their capacities, after receiving CeSID's training and practical experience in conducting public-opinion researches, will be increased. They will be qualified to continue activities independently, carry out their own projects and initiate solving crucial problems.

Since this project envisages forming teams comprised of representatives of the municipality and civil sector, including their mutual cooperation, which will be established if it has not existed yet.

Mutual activities within the project will create conditions for extending cooperation between the municipal authorities and administration and representatives of citizens, which could result in working on mutual projects and increasing the level of activism and interest of citizens in influencing the process of practical policy making at the local level. Continual participation in these processes will have influence on raising the degree of democratization and transparency in the work of the local self-governments.

The project will last 24 months, and its realization is supported by Olaf International Centre.